20 May 2021

Test of change for Regional Improvement Collaborative

The pandemic has required every aspect of our working lives to adapt to more challenging circumstances and regional improvement collaboratives set up to support education and children’s services teams across Scotland are no exception.

The Northern Alliance – striving to improve outcomes through collaboration across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), Highland, Moray, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands – was in itself a test of change as the first regional improvement collaborative, before these were fully established across the country in 2017, and is now in the second year of its Phase 3 Regional Improvement Plan. Its workstream priorities remain aligned to the National Improvement Framework (NIF) and have been developed collaboratively with local authority practitioners and national partners. But the way Northern Alliance officers carry out improvement activity has had to change significantly during the last 14 months.

Similar to many other organisations grappling with face-to-face versus online engagement of colleagues prior to the pandemic, the move to solely remote professional learning opportunities and online collaboration has led to what many practitioners consider to be a more level playing field for all, whether you’re based in South Uist or Stonehaven. The fast-moving circumstances schools and other settings have found themselves in has also led to a change of focus for the collaborative, who are committed to ensuring their professional learning events and networking opportunities are needs-based.

Quality Improvement Manager Kathleen Johnston who is based in Argyll and Bute explained: “The entire education system has evolved and adapted at pace since the onset of the pandemic. We’re all connected by our common purpose and a sense of pride in providing for children and young people, and a big part of what we’re doing at the moment is giving colleagues the breathing space to consider shared aims, how best to achieve those aims but also focus on their wellbeing.

“There is still much to be done in terms of connecting and collaborating with practitioners and we’re shifting our focus to working with colleagues to create the right conditions for improvement to happen. This journey begins by working alongside local authority colleagues to build and grow networks which focus on areas of priority relevant to practitioners within the Northern Alliance.”

The actions the small group of officers seconded to the Northern Alliance from its eight local authorities are working on are outlined in an Overview of Activity for 2021. This month, they are hosting an ‘Include Me’ Week, to encourage best practice around engaging children and young people in the planning and decisions that directly affect them. They also continue to work hard to streamline the extensive volume of information and guidance made available to practitioners by a variety of leading professional organisations and charities – via the Northern Alliance Connects platform.

Responding to the ‘Alternative Certification Model’ within the secondary senior phase (S4-S6), colleagues across the Northern Alliance came together quickly and collaborated to provide vital support for assessment at all examinable levels in mathematics. In addition, a Quality Assurance Network was created with representation from local authorities across the Northern Alliance. This network has enabled colleagues to share practice and create connections for the purpose of senior phase quality assurance. This has been particularly useful to smaller schools, ‘niche’ subject areas and single teacher departments.

The Curriculum workstream has also delivered a number of successful maths and numeracy conferences aimed at both primary and secondary practitioners. Lead officers are also working to support transitions at all levels, using research to inform practice, and working alongside schools in developing their curriculum rationale and interdisciplinary learning.

In terms of raising attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap, officers have been working in collaboration with Education Scotland on a number of projects, including offering professional learning sessions and helping practitioners develop their own improvement projects. Professional learning sessions have included senior leaders, managers, teaching and support staff, including multi-agency front line practitioners from community learning and development, education health and social care along with the voluntary and community sector. The Promoting Equity Improvement Programme seeks to support teams who are working collaboratively to improve equity for learners and will be delivered through a blend of virtual training and quality improvement coaching that will help teams to achieve a deeper knowledge of improvement methods over session 2021-22.

Another exciting development has been through engaging with the Data for Children Collaborative (with Unicef). The key focus of this collaborative of national and international experts has been to work together with Northern Alliance practitioners to identify the data sources and techniques that best reflect the challenges of child poverty and then to identify how we capture, consider and share our data in order to improve outcomes and close the poverty related attainment gap. More information about this exciting piece of work can be found online at: https://www.dataforchildrencollaborative.com/poverty/northern-alliance

Class teachers across the Northern Alliance continue to engage with development officers to ensure the 1+2 languages policy is delivered as effectively as possible. As part of this, online language resources have been developed and these accessible, bite-sized resources aim to upskill practitioners who are implementing additional language learning within the classroom.

The Northern Alliance Early Years Connect to Collaborate Network now has almost 500 practitioners sharing their journey and learning together as we move to full implementation of 1140 hours of high quality Early Learning and Childcare. This workstream’s role in Emerging Literacy continues to grow and develop, linking to the National Practice Guidance for the Early Level – ‘Realising the Ambition’.

In addition, the initial cohort of Early Years practitioners has now completed the Scottish Improvement Foundation Skills (SIFS) qualification. The workstream lead is currently facilitating two further cohorts of SIFS across the Northern Alliance. There has been a particular focus on supporting Excellence and Equity lead practitioners to use Data for Improvement to measure the impact of their work on closing the poverty related attainment gap and to improve outcomes for our youngest children across the Northern Alliance.

Working with individual local authorities and facilitating discussion between them, training has been offered to enable teams to deliver more accurate assessments of the learning estate and ensure the best quality learning environments are available for children and young people.

The Northern Alliance’s e-learning school, e-Sgoil has played a leading role in the development and delivery of the National e-Learning Offer – building on lessons learned since its inception with the help of a number of new dedicated Digital Depute Head Teacher posts now assigned to each Northern Alliance local authority and funded by the improvement collaborative. Aside from that, e-Sgoil’s Interrupted Learners programme 'i-Sgoil' continues to grow, showing huge success in re-engaging learners in learning where this has not been possible in a regular school environment. This programme provides an innovative, online, interactive and supportive learning community where pupils feel in control. The i-Sgoil model is being further developed with extensive input from a range of multidisciplinary professionals and partner agencies.

In terms of developing school leaders across the eight authorities, an increased range of professional learning programmes and activities has been developed for leaders at all levels. These programmes enable participants to work collaboratively with colleagues to enhance and extend their own leadership skills and consider how they apply them in their own context. A depute head teacher leadership network brings together more than 170 colleagues and more than 200 practitioners have completed professional learning on coaching, growing a network of coaches across the Northern Alliance.

Northern Alliance lead officer Helen Budge who is also Director of Children’s Services for Shetland Islands Council added: “We’re a very small team working across a ginormous part of Scotland and I’m very proud of the impact we are making. In the last year we’ve increased the number of collaborative engagements we’re offering practitioners, increased the number of colleagues taking part, we’ve more than doubled the number of visits to our websites and continue to strive to collaborate with colleagues to improve outcomes across eight local authority areas.

“There is still much to be done in terms of connecting and collaborating with practitioners, but we have a shared support strategy and a shared understanding of how the collaborative should move forward. We will continue to embed more agile and innovative ways of working, strengthen trust, connections and reduce silos, and work together with colleagues to explore new and emerging practices in learning and teaching.”
 
Comments have been provided by each of the eight local authority areas highlighting the impact of the Northern Alliance in their local context:

Aberdeen City:Councillor M Taqueer Malik, Aberdeen City Council’s Convener of Education Operational Delivery, said: “The benefits of being able to collaborate with other local authority education teams has never been more evident than in the last 14 months, during which our partnership working has helped us all navigate the uncertainty of the pandemic with greater confidence.”

Aberdeenshire:
Cllr Gillian Owen, Chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education and Children’s Services Committee who also leads the Northern Alliance’s Convention of Conveners, commented: “It’s great to see the Northern Alliance is making a real impact and providing much-needed support to teachers and practitioners across Aberdeenshire and the seven other local authority areas. Working collectively and talking through challenges is so important when it comes to making improvements and delivering of our best for children and young people. Well done to everyone who is engaging in this important work.”

Argyll & Bute:
Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge for education services across Scotland, and we have had to adapt quickly to ensure we meet the needs of our learners.

“There has been a unprecedented increase in digital learning which has given practitioners in Argyll and Bute the chance to engage in a variety of online learning opportunities, regardless of their location.

“Because of this, our teachers and education staff have undertaken a wide range of courses that might not otherwise have been available, including invaluable health and wellbeing coaching led by psychologist Sarah Philp. Foundation apprenticeships and student placements have also been made available in a number of our Early Learning and Childcare settings as a result of these remote learning platforms.

“The last 12 months have not been easy but there is no doubt that we have gained a great deal of knowledge as a result. Moving forward, remote learning will be a growing feature in our education service and we will continue to work closely with our partners in Regional Improvement Collaborative to develop these opportunities for all.”

Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles):
Cllr Paul Steele, Chairman of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Education and Children’s Services Committee, said: “The partnership work being led by digital depute head teachers supporting each local authority has led to excellent outcomes for young people and the curriculum offer for choice forms for next session increases the opportunities for young people. This is particularly pertinent for small schools providing a much wider choice for young people. 

“We hope to build on the e-learning aspect of the Northern Alliance offer and embed these offers in our curriculum. The offer helps build independent learning skills and helps prepare young people for further or higher education or the world of work. We are also able to extend the offer for Gaelic through e-learning and this allows young people to make choices they would not otherwise have.”

Highland:
The Highland Council’s Chief Officer for Education and Learning, Nicky Grant commented: “One of the consequences of the pandemic has been that we have all become much more proficient with digital connection, and this has coincided with a push from the Northern Alliance to develop the improvement collaborative’s influence in terms of bringing about improvement. 

“We very much welcome the increased engagement we have had with the Northern Alliance, whether it is on developing approaches to the curriculum, developing Middle leadership, coaching and mentoring, sharing good practice regarding the Alternative Certification Model or any of the other developments we are collaboratively involved in. As we work to bring about transformative improvements in outcomes across Highland, we look forward to working in an increasingly productive partnership with colleagues seconded to the Northern Alliance.”
 
Chair of the Highland Council’s Education Committee, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The close working of schools and staff across the Northern Alliance is very important to ensure we have a shared vision in terms of supporting and working with our young people at this difficult time. Clearly joint planning and ongoing engagement and evaluation with all the local authorities involved is key to ensuring we do the very best for pupils and young people of all ages.”

Moray:Head of Education Vivienne Cross commented: “The Northern Alliance provides a platform for colleagues across eight local authorities to collaborate on common areas of priority, giving opportunities to look beyond Moray. We are fortunate to be able to join with others who experience similar challenges to ourselves including rurality. Working through a pandemic has been particularly difficult for all staff however by embracing digital ways of working, doors have been opened and opportunities for joint working have become easier.

“e-Sgoil has provided Moray’s learners with access to additional support, particularly for those in the senior phase and for those children who have had additional periods of remote learning due to outbreaks of Covid-19. Our staff have been fortunate to join with others to access a wealth of professional learning opportunities through the Northern Alliance and are benefiting from a growing range of offers to support their practice.”

Orkney Islands:
James Wylie, Executive Director of Education, Leisure and Housing said: “Within Orkney, we have a number of officers and schools participating in a variety of Northern Alliance meetings and workstreams on key areas; the impact of poverty on children’s learning, using data more effectively to monitor and track children’s progress, primary curriculum development, 1+2 languages development and working with schools on moderating learning and teaching in identified key areas with the plan of developing approaches to moderation across the Northern Alliance.

“All of these are helping establish networks of colleagues and enabling us to share our own practice while also learning from others. A significant element over the last year is the development of online approaches making attendance in these groups accessible by all of our schools. Along with this, there has been a significant investment in professional learning opportunities for practitioners and staff at all stages and this is shared with schools on a regular basis. This is helping us to continue to develop practice and enables us to have a much wider access to professional learning opportunities than previously.”

Shetland Islands: Northern Alliance lead officer Helen Budge who is also Director of Children’s Services for Shetland Islands Council added: “We’re a very small team working across a ginormous part of Scotland and I’m very proud of the impact we are making. In the last year we’ve increased the number of collaborative engagements we’re offering practitioners, increased the number of colleagues taking part, we’ve more than doubled the number of visits to our websites and continue to strive to collaborate with colleagues to improve outcomes across eight local authority areas.

“There is still much to be done in terms of connecting and collaborating with practitioners, but we have a shared support strategy and a shared understanding of how the collaborative should move forward. We will continue to embed more agile and innovative ways of working, strengthen trust, connections and reduce silos, and work together with colleagues to explore new and emerging practices in learning and teaching.”

For more information about the work of the Northern Alliance, including a raft of new professional learning opportunities, visit: https://northernalliance.scot/ Practitioners can also find and join professional networks via our Northern Alliance SharePoint site (Glow login required).